McLaren’s Friday Practice pace is genuine

Normally, it would be impossible for us to find out what fuel weights drivers are running during Friday Practice. However, a well-placed photograph has shown us that both McLaren drivers were running 140kgs of fuel in Friday Practice in China.

140kg is around the amount of fuel used for an entire race distance. We can therefore conclude that McLaren were running race simulations in practice. Not only this, but the fact that Hamilton and Button led both Friday Practice sessions shows the MP4-25 has serious pace this year.

If you have a look at the photo above, there are two sentences at the top. Each one refers to telemetry when running used or new prime tyres. However, to the right of these, you can notice 140kg as the amount of fuel in both runs, although you’ll need good eyesight to see it.

From this, Red Bull should be worried. If McLaren can win practice sessions with a race fuel load on board, then they should be the biggest contender to them this year.